1) Why are only local server names in the "Servers" view changeable and not
the names used in "Window -> Preferences -> Server -> Installed runtimes"?

2) Is there a way to use an environment variable to specify the location of
the server runtime? I have a workspace on a shared Linux/Windows partition
and am forced to specify two runtime definitions due to the fact that the
path name is different when I use the workspace though each OS.

> 1) Why are only local server names in the "Servers" view changeable
> and not the names used in "Window -> Preferences -> Server ->
> Installed runtimes"?

Think of a "Installed runtime" as server that WTP support.

A Server on the "Servers" views is a configuration for that installed
runtime. The idea here is that you can have multiple configuration for one
runtime installation. Say for example you have Server1 with 2 datasource
and 1 project. And Server2 with no datasource and 1 project.

> 2) Is there a way to use an environment variable to specify the location
> of the server runtime? I have a workspace on a shared Linux/Windows
> partition and am forced to specify two runtime definitions due to the
> fact that the path name is different when I use the workspace though each
> OS.

hmmm that is though.. we never had a requirement for such an environment.
But it sounds that you already have a workaround.

Having two runtime two definition would be what I would do as well. Just
share the server configuration between them. In other words, have 1 server
configuration (a server in the "Servers" view) and have 2 runtimes, one
with the linux path and another with the windows path.

Whether the name is changeable is dependent on the implementation of the
specific server adapter. Some allow the name of the runtime definition
to be changed, but some do not. Which one are you using?

> 2) Is there a way to use an environment variable to specify the location of
> the server runtime? I have a workspace on a shared Linux/Windows partition
> and am forced to specify two runtime definitions due to the fact that the
> path name is different when I use the workspace though each OS.

I am surprised that this is working for you even with two separate
server definitions. The workspace metadata is full platform-specific
absolute paths and is not meant to be shared between machines.

> Alexandros Karypidis wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've got some questions regarding server runtime settings in webtools.
>>
>> 1) Why are only local server names in the "Servers" view changeable and
>> not the names used in "Window -> Preferences -> Server -> Installed
>> runtimes"?
>
> Whether the name is changeable is dependent on the implementation of the
> specific server adapter. Some allow the name of the runtime definition
> to be changed, but some do not. Which one are you using?

I am using the JBoss 4.2 adapter. I believe it is included in webtools and
not installed via some plugin.

>> 2) Is there a way to use an environment variable to specify the location
>> of the server runtime? I have a workspace on a shared Linux/Windows
>> partition and am forced to specify two runtime definitions due to the
>> fact that the path name is different when I use the workspace though each
>> OS.
>
> I am surprised that this is working for you even with two separate
> server definitions. The workspace metadata is full platform-specific
> absolute paths and is not meant to be shared between machines.

I have had my workspace on a Linux ext3 partition which is accessible to
windows via the ext2ifs driver. So far, I have been writing fat clients
with Eclipse RCP. The clients are using Dali for JPA client-server access
with hibernate. In the past 3 months I've had absolutely no problems.

I now need to implement some stuff using a 3-tier architecture. The client
is the same RCP application, only it will use EJBs in a JBoss AS to access
the database instead. I hit a wall as soon as I started using webtools. The
way I see it, if I could use an environment variable to set the server
runtime path (something like ${MY_JBOSS_DIR} which would be set
to /home/user/dev/jboss in Linux and L:\home\user\dev\jboss in windows),
I'd have absolutely no problems...

I use this technique in JDT to set variables and access java libraries
(.jar) files in a OS-agnostic manner using the SAME workspace in both Linux
and Windows.